Our Mission:

My first husband, Capt. Jerry Zimmer, was an F4B Phantom jet pilot, whose aircraft was shot down on August 29, 1969, approximately 20 miles South of Da Nang, Vietnam, after six months in country. Neither Jerry nor his navigator, 1st Lt. Al Graf, was able to eject, before the aircraft crashed into the Que Son Mountains. Initially Jerry and Al were classified as Killed in Action/No Body Recovered (KIA/NBR). Years later, both Marines were listed as MIA, along with other service members whose bodies were never recovered.

Jerry has been gone nearly a half century, and hope for recovering his remains had run out a long time ago. However, in recent years our family became involved with the Joint POW/MIA Accounting Command (JPAC), now merged with the Defense POW/MIA Accounting Agency (DPAA), and learned that Jerry’s and Al’s remains might, in fact, be recoverable, so we are doing everything possible to support their efforts to make this happen and bring our guys home where they belong.

Da Nang, Vietnam Current Weather

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Archive for the ‘Vietnam Veterans Remember’ Category

Tuna Barksdale discusses the upcoming 2012 Air America Reunion in San Diego and reflects on his Vietnam War years as a Marine helicopter pilot in Vietnam and as a pilot with Air America in Laos.

The secret war in Laos and link to the Central Intelligence Agency (CIA), through its ownership of Air America (AAM), is still an enigma to many people, even though the Vietnam War has been over for decades. Despite the mountainous number of declassified documents now available, covering ’55 -’74, and the much-to-do-about-nothing 1990 movie, Air America, for which many AAM pilots still harbor resentment for its bad storytelling, the real stories of what happened in Laos during the war years are best told by the guys who were there, either through their books, online postings or in person.

“When someone gets up and starts telling a story, it begins to snowball from there,” says Mike Barksdale, aka, Mikey Tuna – a Marine Vietnam veteran who flew H-34s and Hueys in Vietnam, and again later with AAM in Laos. Tuna tells me that the next Air America reunion will be in San Diego, CA, May 30-June 3, 2012.

Tuna and wife Janelle live in the San Diego area and will be attending the reunion, and he hopes that some of his AAM buddies will be there too, like Mike La Pierre, Ron Zaperdino and Bob O’Kennon. Judging by past reunions described on www.AirAmerica.org (great website), these functions usually attract a broad range of former AAM family members and friends who were assigned to Vietnam or Laos, such as contract pilots from civilian and former military ranks – usually Marines and Army; Ravens, typically from the Air Force; flight maintenance/mechanics, CIA case officers, and guys who flew for Arizona Helicopters, Bird & Sons and Continental Air Services.

A CONVERSATION WITH “TUNA” BARKSDALE

Today, Tuna and I are sitting outside his corporate headquarters on a beautiful San Diego day, having lunch and talking about his flying days during the Vietnam War. Tuna is like most former military pilots – he enjoys sharing highlights of long ago when flying was wild and “O” Club war stories got better with every drink. Tuna does not look back on those years with blame, horror or misgivings. Quite the contrary: “I wouldn’t change those experiences for anything,” says Tuna, who grins and says: “You had to be hard-charging and young.”

Although admitting to being more mellow these days, it will come as no surprise that Tuna hasn’t lost his dry sense of humor — headquarters is actually Shakespeare Pub & Grille near the Little Italy section of downtown San Diego. I’m sipping a glass of wine and he a beer, and we spend most of our time laughing, not crying about the past. “When I told Janelle that we were coming to Shakespeare’s, she thought it was a tacky choice,” laughs Tuna, who at 70 is trim and still maintains his Marine Corps weight. Quick to smile, it is difficult to imagine that 2011 was a rough year, health-wise, for Tuna, who still has that youthful, devilish persona, which surfaces when explaining that he and younger brother Jamey, also a Marine Vietnam veteran who flew A-4s, bought a couple of prop planes years ago and started a company servicing the Navy with slow threat simulation training — that’s when the guys found that Shakespeare’s was a perfect place — then and now — to conduct corporate business.

Tuna was a Captain by the time he made up his mind to leave the Marine Corps in 1970. It was not easy but logical for a guy whose life increasingly focused on flying more and making a living at it –AAM looked like a perfect solution – money over medals but still patriotic.

“I knew that the flying opportunities would be slowing down in Vietnam,” says Tuna, who decided to call AAM when he heard that they were building up their helicopter fleet. After he spoke to a representative in D.C. and took an airline employment test, a call was made to the Operation’s Officer of his last Marine squadron, and Tuna was hired. In Dec 1971 he landed at Udorn Royal Thai Air Force Base (RTAFB) in Thailand, followed three months later by former wife Paula, where they remained for the next three years. They lived among families who were working for the Company– the name given to the CIA, which Tuna says was basically a joke, because all the guys knew it was a CIA operation, even if most Americans did not; however that was about to change. As Tuna was arriving in Laos, the U.S. was holding Senate Hearings in D.C. exposing the secret war to the folks back home in the states.PLEASE CLICK HERE FOR THE FULL TEXT OF “A CONVERSATION WITH MIKE “TUNA” BARKSDALE,” ALONG WITH PHOTOS, COURTESY OF BRIG GEN MIKE NEIL, USMC, (RET)

The Dong Ha Nerd Club — operators at the south side of the station, call sign NOEFA – November Zero Echo Foxtrot Alpha — had been through a tough day with the station’s bunker getting destroyed. Top, L-R: Ray Gross, Barry Weathersby and Harry Boggs. Bottom: Bill Biggs & Jim Elshoff. CLICK HERE FOR MARINES FROM MARS-PDF

During the Vietnam War, there were no cell phones, computers, Skype or the Internet, but many servicemen were able to connect – at least, occasionally — with family members back home, thanks to the Military Affiliate Radio Service (MARS). Each branch of service set up its own MARS stations, manned by licensed ham radio operators, at strategic locations in South Vietnam. Had it not been for the MARS operators, most of whom served a normal, 13-month tour with the Army, Air Force, Navy or Marine Corps, many of us would not have spoken to our husbands, fathers, sons, or brothers ever again after they deployed to Southeast Asia.

This blog is a tribute to every MARS operator who patched our guys through to the states, coped with the happy and sad calls and put up with bad radio protocol – namely, from family members like me, who never said “over” at the right moment! When I eventually became a boater and learned proper radio speak, I cringed at how I’d screwed up every MARS call from Jerry, which were few in number. I still remember his words and frustrated laugh: “Elaine, you have to wait for me to say ‘over’ before you say anything.” MARS operators, who served in Vietnam, undoubtedly heard this over and over again — no pun intended!

I recently spoke to Barry Weathersby about his 23 months (overall) in Vietnam – primarily serving as a MARS operator — and he summed up his extended tour this way: “It was the most important time of my life,” said Barry, an Alabama boy, who dropped out of college at 18 and enlisted in the Marine Corps. “Eighteen to 21 is a pretty formative time in your life, and it felt like I was doing something – I was in a decision-making role, where I could be of some benefit to people.” Read more